Hamlet's Sanity
The question of the sanity of Shakespeare's Hamlet has been argued for hundreds of years. Shakespeare's critics believe Hamlet's portrayal of a madman is so convincing that his sanity is lost from the very sight of his father's alleged ghost. While it is true that Hamlet murdered his own uncle, the cause for his malicious crime is the unarguable topic. However, Hamlet was completely sane, otherwise he would have murdered Claudius, his uncle, earlier in the play and committed his pre-meditated suicide. After Hamlet discovers the truth about his father, he goes through a very distressing phase, which is interpreted by readers and characters as madness. With the death of his father and the hasty, incestuous remarriage of his mother to his uncle, Hamlet is thrown into a suicidal frame of mind that is he unable to escape. Hamlet certainly displays some degree of mania and instability throughout much of the play, but his "madness" is far too purposeful for one to assume that he actually loses his mind. To every tragic hero belongs his tragic flaw. In Hamlet's case, his irresoluteness and unconscious self-excuses result in his inability to wholly complete his revenge.
Hamlet could very well be insane - especially after he is forbidden by Polonius to see Ophelia, his lifetime lover. He puts on an extremely convincing spectacle that is perhaps puzzling to a reader. In Act 2, Scene 2, Polonius, Claudius, and Gertrude discuss the cause(s) of Hamlet's seeming madness. Polonius says to the King and Queen: "Your noble son is mad. "Mad" call I it, for, to define true madness, / What is't but to be nothing else but mad?" (II, ii, 99-101). Thus begins Polonius's lengthy explanation of Hamlet's madness, which Polonius attributes to a disappointed love for Ophelia. Polonius is obviously convinced (and mildly flattered) that Hamlet is "mad for thy love" when Ophelia - on her father's orders - refuses to Hamlet anymore. (Internet 2). Thus, Polonius comes up with a deep psychological explanation to justify Hamlet's insanity: "Fell into a sadness, then into a fast, / Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness, / Thence to a lightness, and, by this declension, / Into the madness wherein now he..." (II, ii, 155-59). In Shakespeare's time, it was widely accepted that a frustrated love brings on a melancholy that is borderline insanity (Internet 2). The sadness that overtakes Hamlet keeps him from ever loving Ophelia again because he feels like he is doing her a favor. Hamlet was indeed, at one time, in love with Ophelia. She says herself that he had importuned her with love in honorable fashion, and had given countenance to his speech with almost all the holy vows of heaven (I. iii. 110 f.). However, he felt it necessary that he put aside all thoughts of Ophelia and it also seemed to him necessary to convinc
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Shakespeare's Hamlet, Ophelia Polonius, Guildenstern Rosencrantz, King Queen, Polonius Ophelia, Elsinore Hamlet, Claudius Gertrude, ii ii, English IV, Hamlet's Sanity, love ophelia, throughout play, hamlet's madness, hamlet's madness polonius, hamlet mad, 2 polonius, madness polonius, complete revenge, / thence, father's murder,
Approximate Word count = 1114
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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